The Golden Age of Hollywood animation

The Golden Age of Hollywood Animation (or more appropriately The Golden Age of American Animation) is a period in American animation history that began with the advent of sound cartoons in 1928 and lasted into the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts slowly began losing to the new medium of television animation. Many of the most memorable characters emerged from this period including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Popeye, Betty Boop, Woody Woodpecker, Tom and Jerry, and Mr. Magoo.

Stop motion and special effects

For a great part of the history of Hollywood animation, the production of animated films was an exclusive industry that did not branch off very often into other areas. The various animation studios worked almost exclusively on producing animated cartoons and animated titles for movies. Only occasionally was animation used for other aspects of the movie industry. The low-budget Superman serials of the 1940s used animated sequences of Superman flying and performing super-powered feats were used in the place of live-action special effects, but this was not a common practice.

Related Topics:
Superman - Serial - 1940s

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The exclusivity of animation also resulted in the birth of a sister industry that was used almost exclusively for motion picture special effects: stop motion animation. In spite of their similarities, the two genres of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation rarely came together during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Stop-motion animation made a name for itself with the 1933 box-office hit King Kong, where animator Willis O'Brien defined many of the major stop motion techniques used for the next 50 years. The success of King Kong led to a number of other early special effects films, including Mighty Joe Young, which was also animated by O'Brien and helped to start the careers of a several animators, including Ray Harryhausen, who came into his own in the 1950s.

Related Topics:
Stop motion - 1933 - King Kong - Willis O'Brien - Mighty Joe Young - Ray Harryhausen - 1950s

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George Pál was the only stop-motion animator to produce a series of stop-motion animated cartoons for theatrical release, the Puppetoon series for Paramount, some of which were animated by Ray Harryhausen. Pál went on to produce several live-action special effects-laden feature films.

Related Topics:
George Pál - Puppetoon

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Stop motion animation reached the height of its popularity during the 1950s. The exploding popularity of science fiction films lead to an exponential development in the field of special effects, and George Pál became the producer of several popular special-effects laden films. Meanwhile, Ray Harryhausen's work on such films as Earth vs the Flying Saucers, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms drew in large crowds and encouraged the development of "realistic" special effects in films. These effects used many of the same techniques as cel animation, but still the two media did not often come together. Stop motion developed to the point where Douglas Trumbull's effects in ' seemed lifelike to an unearthly degree.

Related Topics:
1950s - Science fiction - Earth vs the Flying Saucers - The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad - The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms - Douglas Trumbull

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Hollywood special effects continued to develop in a manner that largely avoided cel animation, though several memorable animated sequences were included in live-action feature films of the era. The most famous of these was a scene during the movie Anchors Aweigh, in which actor Gene Kelly danced with an animated Jerry Mouse (of Tom and Jerry fame). But except for occasional sequences of this sort, the only real integration of cel animation into live-action films came in the development of animated credit and title sequences. Saul Bass' opening sequences for Alfred Hitchcock's films (including Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho) are legendary, and he had several imitators. Likewise, the opening title sequence of the Pink Panther film series were popular enough to give rise to a series of cartoons based upon the character of the same name.

Related Topics:
Anchors Aweigh - Gene Kelly - Jerry Mouse - Saul Bass - Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo - North by Northwest - Psycho - Pink Panther

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